The entire population of the world must have seen Andrew Lloyd Webber’s pomp-opera at least three times, so why haven’t I? Well I have now, though I wish I hadn’t. There is no bigger fan of Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar than me and although it’s of its time (1970), it was part of a rethink of the musical that might have led somewhere interesting if the man hadn’t decided to follow his talent down the road of the pre-sliced cheesy tune and soft-rock ballad.

Well, that's funny he should say that, because I happened to see Phantom for the first time ever a couple of months ago (in London) and spent quite a lot of time looking at my watch as it plodded on.

There are some nice melodies, but not enough of them, and I found it lacked any moments of humour, unlike Les Miz, which has so many more great songs, sung by a larger number of principals, each as good as the last, and the story's better anyway

I was so disappointed in Phantom that I walked up Shaftesbury Avenue immediately afterwards and bought a matinée ticket for the next day's performance of Les Miz, which was impeccable, as usual, and it being a wet and 'orrible London day and not all tickets sold, all of us cheapos who'd paid £15 for a view of their heads from up in the Gods got upgraded to excellent stalls seats

'The Phantom of the Opera': Ghosts of a love affairby MICHAEL COVENEY for the Independent

Lloyd Webber is like the Phantom himself, haunting the theatre and bending the theatre managers and their singers to his will, driven by his enslavement to Christine's voice, enthralled by her beauty and embarrassed by his own beastliness. Lloyd Webber was first taken by Brightman (who had appeared in the chorus role of Jemima in Cats) when he saw her, at the end of 1982, in a children's opera, Nightingale, at the Lyric, Hammersmith, where she was decorating the soaring melodic lines in Charles Strouse's score with spectacular coloratura trills.

When the casting director for the Las Vegas version of "Phantom of the Opera" held an open call for ballerinas, 50 women tried out for 6 openings. Many of the women had come from Los Angeles just for the chance.

If Las Vegas has long been a draw for dancers, well, they haven't traditionally been seen as the classically trained sort. But that perception seems to be changing, as performers with a formal dance background are finding that the city's pop reviews and musical extravaganzas provides better job opportunities than most major American hubs of high culture.

'Phantom' still haunts audiencesShow is set to become longest-running in Broadway historyby MICHAEL KUCHWARA for the Associated Press

Among those who have found steady employment for nearly two decades are musician Lowell Jay Hershey, who plays the trumpet in the show's orchestra; Thelma Pollard, the musical's makeup supervisor; and George Lee Andrews, one of three actors who have been in the production ever since the curtain first went up in New York.

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